The Other Side of Fashion: The Handmade Business

Fashion has always had a clear set of rules. As long as you’d follow them, you’d be safe. But what happens when people start taking an interest in the handmade business, do they stop being “fashionable”?

The handmade market has started small: common people started creating some pieces of jewellery by using, mainly, what they had lying around the house. Whether it was strings of plastic, colourful glass beads, or small pieces of metal, they would soon transform into something else: a shiny bracelet, long earrings or wooden broaches. As more people starting visualising the products of others, they themselves start putting their skills and their passions in practice; the result is a growing market of original and unique designs.

The handmade business can also be a very profitable environment if you have an artistic side yourself. It’s not that hard really. Most of us are in awe when we see the work of some great designer, but firmly believe that any experiment on our part would result in failure. What the handmade market teaches you is that this is a place for everybody, not only for those who can afford it. It also provides you with an opportunity to be both buyer and seller. All you need to do is find something you’re passionate about and recreate that object at request, like say, for example, lace broaches or wooden shaped pendants. The possibilities are endless.

However, when people say “fashion” what most of us hear is “designer brands”, “pricey tags” and “fashion magazines”. So what happens when you find exactly what you were looking for on some online web shop that backs up a whole community of independent artists? This is the case of Etsy, a place for inexpensive jewellery (but not only), where small producers or young businesses advertise their products and deliver it to your home. Some even deliver worldwide. As the community grows bigger, so do the numbers of people interested in purchasing or making handmade themselves.

As trends consistently change, this particular market has managed to find its way into the lives of many. The “custom-made” factor or the “designed especially for X” labels are two more reasons why it’s almost impossible to say no to handmade. Originality and uniqueness are what everybody’s searching to find in every item bought for oneself, an affordable price just makes it all the more attractive. So why not invest in fashion by investing in handmade? This is the future after all. Or is it not?